IIIZ+

Officially formed in Darmstadt, Germany in 2001, IIIZ+ ("three zee plus," in English), a quartet born out of musical interests and experiences of Jocelyn Clark, and nurtured with Il-Ryun Chung's artistic input, features a unique combination of the three bridged east Asian zithers: Korean kayagûm, Japanese koto, and Chinese zheng--"plus" Korean percussion. Increasingly known for performances that defy the conventional boundaries of their instruments, IIIZ+ continues to break new ground, offering surprising insights into musical and cultural interactions between China, Korea, and Japan in the context of America and Europe (indeed each player —originally from Alaska, Japan, Taiwan, and Germany respectively — speaks with a different native tongue). IIIZ+'s focus on the large-bridged zither instrument family brings into sharp relief both the archetypical similarities and differences among East Asia's individual living music traditions .